The Longest Battle: Drug users in Nagaland fight on

During the ‘80s-‘90s, they were hunted, shamed, or tortured and killed, merely for being victims of circumstances. Today, drug addicts in Nagaland are finding new hope and new lives thanks to social and state interventions. However, the fight is still far from won, writes our Correspondent Atono Tsukru    

KOHIMA, JUNE 25: THERE are no reliable records outlining the probable history of drug addiction in Nagaland, except for conversational lore from veteran drug users over the decades. Nonetheless, it can be confidently stated that a visible trend of drug addiction began to emerge in Nagaland during the early ‘80s.
The ‘80s were a time when drug addiction was being closely associated with pop culture movements, primarily characterized by the music industry of said era and youth rebellion associated with such movements across Europe and the West. For Nagaland then, drug addiction began to build itself around a small, accessible and commercially cheap pharmaceutical–the cough syrup Phensedyl.
As travel and market interactions with the world grew, hard narcotics such as heroin became accessible to local users. While offering the strongest high, heroin began to grow too expensive following high demand. The price for the narcotic shot up, forcing local drug users to seek cheaper and widespread pharmaceuticals such as Phensedyl, and painkillers such as (now banned) Spasmo Proxyvon, Relipen, and Nitrosun. Said drugs were easily available then.
Many from the drug supply were said to have come from the neighboring state of Assam, from its outposts such as Lahorijan, Khatkati and Bokajan. Drug users could procure the pills at cheaper rates of Rs 20 per strip of eight capsules back then, it is said.
Later, another hard but low-quality drug, Brown Sugar, entered the scene. However, it didn’t last long due to its low quality and high price, veteran users say.
As the number of drug users increased in Nagaland, there was a time in the late ‘80s and through to the ‘90s when the society began to ostracize drug users–it was an era when they could be caught, severely beaten or tortured, while many were shot dead, particularly by underground activists. It was a form of punishment and deterrent to prevent youths from using drugs.
However, such inhumane measures only deepened the damage instead of curing the malady.
The president of health welfare activists the Nagaland Users’ Network, Ketho, told this correspondent that there were no ‘proper’ official records about drug use, users and impact indicators for Nagaland. He said, nonetheless, that there were roughly about 40,000 drug users and 16,340 injecting-drug users (as per assessment coverage of the NSACS during 2014-2015) across Nagaland.
A former drug addict, Ketho now lives a drug- and alcohol-free life. He is passionate about working for the welfare of drug users in Nagaland.
Offering insights into his life, Kheto said his affair with addiction began in 1991 when he was in class-II when he tasted Phensedyl for the first time. From then on, one thing led to another that led to his becoming a full-fledged, hardcore intravenous drug-user (IDU), a person who injects narcotic substances into the body as a means to attaining quicker ‘high.’
But then his life hit rock bottom. He decided to get clean. He made five attempts to detoxify and two more to rehabilitate before he could finally defeat it.
In his words, the practice of intravenous drug use in Nagaland has reduced drastically during the past few years. However, there are many ‘oral drug users,’ Kheto explained. One of the contributing factors to the decline in IDU is intervention in the form of rehabilitation and network and support program primarily for HIV/AIDS prevention and control.
In 2006, the Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) program came–a method that advocates switching from illegal drug to legal drugs, which drew positive response from drug addicts. Many have enrolled in the program since then, he said.
Currently, there are 31 OST centers in the districts; Nagaland is the only state in the country that has it in all the districts. Narrating the plight of drugs users in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Ketho said the state government and the civil society did not know how to deal with drug users back then. They were severely tortured by ‘non-state actors’ (underground activists).
Due to such inhuman response, ‘drug use went under the carpet,’ Ketho said. Intravenous use started which, he said, in turn also contributed to the growth of HIV/AIDS in Nagaland.
Thankfully, with the passage of time, he said, education came and people were sensitized. However, support from the society has not been very good. ‘They are neither supporting nor doing anything also,’ Ketho says. On the use of ‘oral drugs’ by adolescents, he said preventive measures at the initial stages were crucial:
‘If we don’t take some sort of primary preventive measures, they will graduate to injection and might repeat the same story of what we faced back in the ‘80s and ‘90s,’ he warned. The need of the hour is to reach out to this young group of people who have begun using drugs, he said.
Offering a word of advice to the young, Ketho said, ‘Never do drugs. It’s not a good thing. Once you start, a day may come when you will not be able to leave it very easily.’
Forty year old Khrie-o from Botsa, a drug user for 16 long years and currently on the OST program for 10 years, has a similar story. Khrie-o started doing drugs in 1987. Recalling his ordeal of addiction of sixteen years, he said life used to be miserable back then: constant conflicts with family members for money to procure drugs, which graduated into stealing from friends and neighbors.
Though giving up on drugs and the road to recovery had not been easy, Khrie-o is grateful for the OST program, which he started in 2006. ‘Without it, my life would have been a different story.’ He gratefully said to be living a normal life now and performing normal chores like any other person.
Full of emotions, the veteran drug user said that life was once miserable for him because he was considered ‘unwanted’ and had to lose the trust and faith of family, friends and society. ‘You were looked down all the time,’ he said.
Again, although struggling with abscess and Hepatitis-C due to prolonged intravenous drug use, Khrie-o was visibly joyful when he said he was living a better life today by slowly reintegrating himself into society, and earning livelihood by engaging in a humble electronic and mobile repairing business.
Sharing his concern for his friends who are on OST but are unemployed, Khrie-o said skill-development training programs would be of great help and would encourage them to live as normal citizens of the society.
Coming as a good initiative is ‘Operation Salvage’ rehabilitation centre in Heningkunglwa, Peren founded by, ironically, ‘Non State Actors,” the armed Naga underground group NSCN-IM. The center is said to have been successful for 13 years with clients from various parts of the state and its neighbors.
Speaking to Eastern Mirror, T Meren Jamir, head counselor of the center, said that there were currently 52 clients from Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, and Rajasthan. They comprise drug addicts and alcoholics. The oldest client is a 59-year-old while the youngest is 15. Among the clients, one is a Ph.D holder and 12 are graduates.
As the world observes International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, Ketho spoke of the burden that remains: the large number of drug users in Mokokchung, Mon, Tuensang and Wokha district points to the need for more rehabilitation centers across Nagaland.
Another concern is expenditure and expense: the huge amount of money that a client must pay for admission into rehabilitation centers itself drains the clients as much as the drugs drain their bodies. Ketho pointed out that drug users were people who were financially drained from having to support addiction. Their families are ‘mostly also not in a very ideal positions to support them financially even to seek help from rehabilitation centers.’ he said.
Yet another concern: women who use drugs. Although fewer compared to their male counterparts, there are women who use drugs, including intravenously. The stigma attached with female drug users is even sharper, Ketho said. ‘There is a need for rehabilitation centers that would take care of women specifically; there are none at present,’ he said.
The leader of the Nagaland Users’ Network has requested the Nagaland government to also revive the detoxification centers across the state that were once attached to district hospitals. The centers either no longer exist or are ‘very poorly functioning,’ Ketho said. ‘Drug users need to have a variety of treatment options. Rehabilitation is not the 100% solution for all drug users,’ he added.